This monumental work is the first comprehensive biblical theology to appear in many years and is the culmination of Brevard Child's lifelong commitment to constructing a biblical theology that surmounts objections to the discipline raised over the past generation.Childs rejects any approaches that overstress either the continuity or discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. He refuses to follow the common pattern in Christian thought of identifying biblical theology with the New Testament's interest in the Old. Rather, Childs maps out an approach that reflects on the whole Christian Bible with its two very different voices, each of which retains continuing integrity and is heard on its own terms.

Indice e argomenti trattati

Preface

xv

Abbreviations

xviii

1 Prolegomena

1

I The History of the Discipline of Biblical Theology

3

1 The Developing of the Discipline

3

2 Ebeling's Suggestions for Redefining the Discipline

6

II Current Models for Biblical Theology

11

1 Biblical Theology within Dogmatic Categories

11

2 Allegorical or Typological Approaches

13

3 Great Ideas or Themes

14

4 Heilsgeschichte or History of Redemption

16

5 Literary Approaches to Biblical Theology

19

6 The Cultural-Linguistic Method

21

7 Sociological Perspectives on Biblical Theology

22

8 Jewish Biblical Theology

25

III Classic Earlier Christian Approaches to Biblical Theology

30

1 Irenaeus

30

2 Origen

33

3 Augustine

36

4 Thomas Aquinas

40

5 Martin Luther

43

6 John Calvin

47

2 A Search For A New Approach

53

I The Problem of the Christian Bible

55

1 The Form of the Jewish Scriptures at the Rise of Christianity

55

2 The Sources for Determining its Scope

57

3 Indirect Evidence for Closure

59

4 The Formation of the Larger Christian Canon

60

5 The Theological Problems at Stake

63

II A Canonical Approach to Biblical Theology

70

1 A Canonical Approach to the Two Testaments

70

2 Canonical Text or Canonical Interpreter

71

3 Canonical Shaping and the Two Testaments of the Christian Bible

73

4 Canonical Guidelines for Structuring a Biblical Theology

77

III From Witness to Subject Matter

80

1 Theories of Access to the Subject Matter

80

2 Redefining the Subject Matter of the Biblical Witness

83

3 The Theological Task of Biblical Theology

85

4 The Relation between Biblical Theology and Dogmatics

88

IV Canonical Categories for Structuring a Biblical Theology

91

3 The Discrete Witness Of The Old Testament

95

I Methodological Problems

97

1 Hermeneutical Reflections on Israel's History

97

2 Alternative Historical Proposals Criticized

102

3 Historical Development and Canonical Shaping

104

II Creation

107

1 The Growth of the Tradition in Oral and Literary Stages

107

2 Creation Tradition within the Rest of the Old Testament

113

III From Eden to Babel

119

IV Patriarchal Traditions (Genesis 12--50)

123

1 The Patriarchal Tradition as a Whole

123

2 The Abraham Cycle (Gen. 12.1--25.10)

125

3 The Jacob Cycle (Gen. 25.19--35.29)

126

4 The Joseph Stories (Genesis 37--50)

126

5 The Patriarchs in the Rest of the Old Testament

127

V Mosaic Traditions

130

1 Exodus from Egypt

130

2 Sinai, Law, and Covenant

131

3 Israel, the People of God

138

4 Priesthood and Tabernacle

140

VI The Possession of the Land and the Settlement

143

1 Tensions within the Tradition

143

2 The Growth of the Tradition as Witness

145

3 Conquest Traditions in the Rest of the Old Testament

146

VII The Tradition of the Judges

149

VIII The Establishment of the Monarchy

152

1 The Saul Traditions

153

2 The Davidic Traditions

153

3 Solomon's Reign

155

IX The Divided Kingdom

157

1 The Deuteronomistic Redaction

157

2 The Prophetic Tradition

158

3 The Chronicler

159

X Exile and Restoration

162

1 Exile

162

2 Restoration

163

3 The Canonical Conclusion of Israel's History

164

XI The Prophetic Tradition

167

1 The Biblical Presentation

167

2 The Origins of Prophecy

168

3 The Historical Scope of the Prophetic Tradition

169

4 The Formation of the Prophetic Corpus

170

5 The Cessation of Prophecy

171

6 The Relation of the Law and the Prophets

174

7 Development and Change within the Prophetic Tradition

175

8 Prophetic Themes of Promise

177

XII The Apocalyptic Tradition

181

1 Terminology

181

2 Problems of Interpreting the Book of Daniel

181

3 Reconstructing an Apocalyptic Trajectory

182

4 Prophecy and Apocalyptic

184

XIII The Wisdom Tradition

187

1 The Historical Setting for Wisdom

187

2 The Growth of Wisdom Traditions within Israel

188

3 Wisdom and Law

189

XIV The Tradition of the Psalms

191

1 The Scope

191

2 The Psalms in their Settings

191

3 Trajectories in the Growth of the Psalms Tradition

193

XV Excursus: The Theological Problem of Old Testament History

196

1 The Impact of Critical Study

196

2 Modern Attempts to Rethink History

200

(a) The Attack on the Scientific Model of History

201

(b) The Subjectivity of Social Reality

202

(c) The Function of the Present in the Recovery of the Past

202

(d) The Discontinuity of Historical Theory

203

(e) History as a Symbol System

203

3 The Move from History to Language

204

4 The Discrete Witness Of The New Testament

209

I The Hermeneutical Problem of the Historical Study of the New Testament